A SHARP LOOKOUT. 9 



have down in Texas is afforded by the ants. The 

 ants bring their eggs up out of their underground re- 

 treats and expose them to the warmth of the sun to 

 be hatched. When they are seen carrying them in 

 again in great haste, though there be not a cloud in 

 the sky, your walk or your drive must be postponed : 

 a storm is at hand. There is a passage in Virgil that 

 is doubtless intended to embody a similar observation, 

 though none of his translators seem to have hit its 

 meaning accurately : 



" Saepius et tectis penetralibus extulit ova 

 Angustum formica terens iter : " 



" Often also has the pismire making a narrow road 

 brought forth her eggs out of the hidden recesses " 

 is the literal translation of old John Martyn. 



" Also the ant, incessantly traveling 

 The same straight way with the eggs of her hidden store," 



is one of the latest metrical translations. Dryden 

 has it : 



" The careful ant her secret cell forsakes 

 And drags her eggs along the narrow tracks," 



which comes nearer to the fact. When a storm is 

 coming Virgil also makes his swallows skim low about 

 the lake, which agrees with the observation above. 



The critical moment of the day as regards the 

 weather is at sunrise and sunset. A clear sunset 

 is always a good sign ; an obscured sun, just at the 

 moment of going down, after a bright day, bodes 

 storm. There is much truth, too, in the saying that 



